According to the family’s lawyers, they believe the hospital failed to ensure antibiotics were administered to Mr Hewes as soon as possible and within an hour of his arrival, as per national guidelines, despite Dr Burns repeatedly raising the alarm that he needed them and had not received them.
Luke Brown, senior charge nurse on the night in question, told the court on Thursday that he “assumed” his team had given Mr Hewes antibiotics and that he did not at any point ask them about whether they had administered the medicine.
Bow Coroners’ Court heard Mr Hewes arrived at the hospital at 12.06am, was admitted to the hospital’s resuscitation area – “resus” – and received antibiotics at about 1.25am.
Asked if he heard Dr Burns repeatedly asking nursing staff whether they were giving her son antibiotics and telling them that he needed them urgently, Mr Brown said: “No, I didn’t hear that.”.
Rebecca McMillan, who was the emergency medicine registrar that night, grew emotional as she told the coroner what she would have done differently, and said from the moment she saw Mr Hewes she believed he might die.
